AHL Utah Grizzlies

Grizzlies road trip off to slow start

Published on January 4, 2005 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Utah Grizzlies News Release


The Utah Grizzlies began an eight-game road trip last week with games against the two top teams in the AHL in Manchester and Hartford. The journey began in Manchester where the Monarchs notched their league-leading ninth shutout of the season defeating the Grizzlies 6-0. It was the second straight shutout for Manchester goaltender Adam Hauser against the Grizzlies and the third straight win overall for the Monarchs against Utah. Jeff Taffe was injured in the game and will be lost for at least four weeks and goaltender David LeNeveu sustained an injury that kept him out of action over this past weekend in Hartford. On New Year's Eve, the Grizzlies took a three-game New Year's Eve winning streak into Hartford and had their chances but fell in a one-goal contest 2-1 to the best defensive club in the AHL. Jean-Marc Pelletier made 25 saves in a losing effort and Randall Gelech scored the lone goal of the game for Utah. On New Year's Day, the Grizzlies played a strong 50 minutes but Hartford responded with the score tied at two midway through the third period with a pair of power play goals and a late fifth goal to triumph 5-2. Pelletier made 27 saves between the pipes and Gelech and Peter Metcalf scored the Grizzlies goals.

Dec. 28 Grizzlies 0 Manchester 6 Grizzlies shutout for fifth time this season
Dec. 31 Grizzlies 1 Hartford 2 Randall Gelech scores lone Utah goal
Jan. 1 Grizzlies 2 Hartford 5 Peter Metcalf scores first goal as a Grizzly


BLUE COLLAR LINE WORKING HARD TOWARDS SUCCESS:

~The newly assembled line of Jarrod Skalde, Randall Gelech and Mike Stutzel found an offensive grove in the two games versus Hartford with Gelech scoring two goals and Skalde and Stutzel assisting on both of them. Gelech leads all Grizzlies rookies with seven goals and for Stutzel it was his first two points of the season.

VIRTUE HONORED BY AHL:

~Grizzlies veteran defenseman Terry Virtue reached a historic milestone on December 18th when he played in his 800th AHL game. Virtue becomes just the 26th player to reach the 800 game plateau and since has reached 804 games climbing the all-time games played list to number 24 sitting 18 games behind Tommy Williams for number 23. In his career, Virtue has scored 83 goals with 283 assists for 366 points and scored the Calder Cup winning goal in 2000 for the Hartford Wolf Pack.

SKALDE CLIMBING HIGHER IN GRIZZLIES HISTORY:

~Utah center Jarrod Skalde is just one assist shy of 100 assists as a member of the Grizzlies moving him to sixth on the franchises' all-time assist list. Overall, Skalde ranks fifth on the team's point list with 151 points, 15 behind current Utah assistant coach Gord Dineen for fourth place.

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD (Continued):

~Utah's road trip continues this week with three games including a return to Manchester for the final meeting of the regular season between the two clubs and a two-game stop in Cincinnati against the West Division rival Mighty Ducks. Utah is 0-1-0-1 this season against Cincy.

Upcoming Schedule:
Jan. 5 – Utah at Manchester The Grizzlies are 0-3 against Manchester this season
Jan. 7 – Utah at Cincinnati Utah is 3-3-2 all-time in the Cincinnati Gardens
Jan. 8 – Utah at Cincinnati The teams meet a total of eight times this season

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American Hockey League Stories from January 4, 2005


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